Just a very quick observation.
I can say,
x is flatter than y
although x is not flat. Similarly, I can say
x is rounder than y.
But there is a difference. Being rounder entails a *degree* of roundness;
being flat does not suggest with the same force a degree of flatness.
This is probably owing to the fact that degree of flatness is
privation of degree of roundness. So there is this asymmetry between
round and flat.
Similarly, I can say
x is more just than y.
x must have some degree of justice. There are other terms that differ because they
are not in the comparative degree but are positive. So, e.g., I may say
x is hotter than y
meaning that x is not, necessarily, hot. But here I wouldn't want to say that
x must possess some degree of hotness. So 'just' is not like 'hot'. It is not
a comparative in the positive degree. What does this mean? I means that
inasmuch as 'hot' requires a standard over and above the measure of
temperature, so too, 'just' does NOT require a standard over and above
any other magnitude. Notice 'warm'.
I can say
x is warmer than y
meaning x's warmth is greater than y's even though it is not warm. But here
x is not necessarily warm. But is this like 'just'? Further, if
x is hotter than y
is intended to mean
x is hot and the hotness of x is greater than y
then both x and y must be hot. But if
x is more just than y
do I ever say this with the intention of meaning that x is just and the
justice of x is greater than that of y, so both are just? What does this
all suggest? Well, perhaps, that 'just' unlike 'hot' is never grammatically
a comparative in the positive degree. Is, justice, then comparative?
We say,
He received some just compensation
or
There was some justice in this.
We do not say there was some heat where possessing heat implies
(materially) being hot. In this respect 'heat' is not like 'just'; for we do not say
there is some justice in this but it is not just. We say
there is some heat here
without meaning there is hotness. The logic of all this will once clarified
have consequences for whether justice requires a standard, a standard
of justice. I don't believe it does, but I might change my mind. Also, justice
is not a privation of injustice; this figures in.
Regards
STeve
----- Original Message -----
From: jlsperanza at aol.com
To: hist-analytic at simplelists.co.uk
Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 12:42:30 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: Not Cricket
In a message dated 1/17/2010 10:25:48 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
Baynesr at comcast.net writes:
The idea has been around. It goes back to commentary on Aristotle, where
there are things for which there is no excess or defect. For example, I
may
be incontinent with respect to eating, but there is nothing comparable
with
respect to murdering. So the idea, at least, has been around.
---
Very good point. I loved your discussion to 'scholia', as I think scholars
call it, of Aristotle. -- The apparatus criticum, as I think they also call
it.
---
So to apply it to 'fair', or 'just' -- you'd indeed be opting for
"flat"
vs.
"rounded" (or variable)
The flat/rounded distinction is Grice (Aspects of Reason, online, lecture i
or ii).
"more or less fair"
"less or more fair"
"more or less just"
"less or more just"
It seems all quartette makes sense. So it does not seem 'flat'. Alas, for I
like my philosophical concepts made flat by analysis (just joking).
O. T. O. H.
"more or less unfair"
"less or more unfair"
"more or less unjust"
"less or more unjust"
also make sense. Indeed, people can flout all this.
"He is quite dead"
"He is rather dead"
--- It seems that 'quite' is emphatic. For you cannot say,
(naturally)
"He is very dead"
You should actually, because 'very', as R. Hall will know, is short for
'verily'
and
"He is, verily, dead."
makes a lot of sense.
There may be other tests -- and it becomes tricky if you focus as perhaps
Grice wanted on 'just' as adverb, "just-acting". For the very idea of adverb
becomes logical problematic
The judge acted unfairly
_____________________
The judge acted.
-- the reference to these paradoxes in Luke, -- online site -- of the
unfair or unjust judge.
More later, I hope.
Cheers,
J. L.
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